John Bevere - Honors reward : how to attract Gods favor and blessing

Contents

In honor of three important men in my life:

Jim Heeres

who introduced me to Jesus Christ

Mark Stoehr

who brought me to Jesus Christ

Don Blake

who established me in Jesus Christ

One sowed, one reaped, one trained, but God gave the increase.

To God be all the Glory!

M y deepest appreciation to

Lisa. Thanks for being my wife, best friend, most faithful supporter, co-laborer in the ministry, mother of our children, and lover. You are truly God's gift to me, and I value and treasure you. I love you, babe.

Our four sons, Addison, Austin, Alexander, and Arden. All of you have brought great joy to my life. You are each a special treasure to me. Thank you for sharing in the call of God and encouraging me to travel and write. I love spending time with each of you.

The staff and board members of Messenger International. Thank you for your unwavering support and faithfulness. It's a pleasure to work with each of you and an honor to serve God together. Lisa and I love each of you.

Our many ministerial friends all over the world. Space doesn't permit me to write each of your names. Thanks for the invitations and honor to speak and minister in your churches and conferences. I love all you pastors and ministers who are serving God faithfully.

Tom Winters and Rolf Zetterson, thanks for your encouragement and belief in the message God has burned in my heart.

Gary Terashita, thank you for your editing skills in this project. But most of all thanks for your support.

All the staff of FaithWords. Thanks for the support of this message and for your professional and kind help. You are a great group to work with.

Most important, my sincere gratitude to my Lord. How can words adequately acknowledge all You have done for me and for Your people? I love You more than I am able to express.

Rewards Await You

H onor. Though it is almost an extinct virtue in the twenty-first century, the concept still holds the power to move us. In movies a display of honor can inspire tears as courage and sacrifice are witnessed. Review the greatest blockbusters of all time and you'll find honor interwoven into their plots. We applaud its virtue vicariously, but where is honor in our everyday lives? The notion that it could be lived in the ordinary has become foreign to our generation.

I want to see honor restored to the sons and daughters of God. It is the essential key to receiving from God, and for this very reason the enemy of our souls has all but eliminated the true power of honor. Honor carries with it great rewards; rewards God desires you to have. Honor has the power to greatly enhance your life.

You are about to embark on a journey that will take you closer to the heart of God, the author of all that is honorable. I pray these revelatory truths will affect your life in a profound and practical way. Many have not learned these lessons until much later in life. For this reason John the apostle urgently writes,

John was an old man looking back over nearly a century of living when he penned those words ( Clarke's Commentary, Abingdon Press (1977)Accordance 6.6). He lent his hard-won insight for our benefit today. John had the acquired vantage realized by men and women who have lived long and well. It is a destination arrived at by faithfully walking in a life calling, a post of assurance and strength, something I call a Grandfather or Grandmother Anointing ; and when they speak, the wise listen.

Over the past twenty-five years I've enjoyed a handful of encounters with such men and women. These are ambassadors who've worn life well and entered the stage where they look back with knowing. Such seasoned veterans develop some common attributes, three of which we will discuss here. First, they instinctively locate the heart of a matter. They don't beat around the bush, or waste time with the unimportant. Second, they say much in very few words. Third, the words they choose and utter are weighty. Their somewhat sparse communication carries a greater weight than the same words spoken by another who has not walked as well, or as long, the paths of life. After such an interlude I have found myself meditating for months on just one or two sentences uttered by these seasoned veterans.

In light of this reasoning we can assume John the apostle was saying a great deal. In fact, I've meditated on these inspired words for years, and the revelation within them continues to expand. Let's examine his admonishment a phrase at a time.

Don't Lose Your Inheritance

He begins, Look to yourselves. John encourages each of us to take heed, examine, and watch out for ourselves. An urgency is lent to his words, for what he's about to communicate is not to be taken lightly, but thoroughly pondered.

Careful attention must be paid so we do not lose those things for which we have labored. This is a bit sobering we can lose what was won through labor. Imagine a farmer toiling to clear his field. He works through the heat of the day to rid the soil of boulders and stumps that would hinder the soil from producing a harvest. Once cleared, he plows and tills the ground in preparation for the planting of his seed. Once the field is planted, he labors to maintain the ideal conditions for his plantings to flourish by fertilizing, weeding, and watering his seed. The plants emerge and his labor continues as he protects the field from pestilence and damage. Then a few weeks prior to harvest he is weary and gives up. All is for naught as he loses his entire crop because of his latter neglect. Or perhaps a storm threatened, he saw the warnings but neglected to respond, and the mistake cost him the ingathering. What a waste of time, money, labor, and resources only to falter at the moment of realization.

What about a businessman who labors to build his company for years, only to lose it in the end because of a few bad decisions? Again tragic. In both cases the benefits of extensive labor are lost in a moment through wrong choices.

This is why Scripture repeatedly encourages us to finish well: He who endures to the end (Matt. 10:22; 24:13; Mark 13:13), again, We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end (Heb. 3:14), and again, He who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end (Rev. 2:26, emphasis mine in all), and the list continues. Christianity is not a sprint but an endurance run. Therefore it is not how we start the race that counts, but how we complete it. How we finish is determined by the choices we make, and those are often formed by patterns we develop along the way.

Life-Defining Moments

There was an incident with one of our sons. He wanted to do something I wasn't in favor of. He knew where I stood yet I felt he was old enough to make the call, so the final decision was his. Time passed and I found out he chose to go against my counsel. Later we sat down to discuss his choice. I explained, The choice was up to you, but I want to take this opportunity to teach you from this.

There was a young king named Rehoboam. Shortly after he began his reign a question arose from his subjects: Your father made our lives rough from the demands he placed upon us. Would you please lighten the load and we will happily serve you.

The young king instructed the people to return in a few days to hear his decision. His father's counselors told him, If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they'll end up doing anything for you [1 Kings 12:7, The Message].

It was good and wise counsel, but the young king rejected their advice and went to his peers. They said, These people who complain, Your father was too hard on us; lighten upwell, tell them this: My little finger is thicker than my father's waist. If you think life under my father was hard, you haven't seen the half of it. My father thrashed you with whips; I'll beat you bloody with chains! [vv. 1011, The Message].